The degree of success you enjoy in your business is directly related to your ability to continually attract new customers and to keep existing customers buying from you, again and again.
Whether you have 100 or 5000 customers, in order to get the maximum value you need to market to these customers again and again. So the best strategy is to continue efforts to attract first-time buyers…and to constantly stimulate sales from those who have purchased before. That’s where the real profits are.
The easiest and least costly sale you’ll ever make is to an existing customer. These people have already trusted you to deliver a product or service. You don’t have to sell them again on the merits of doing business with you instead of your competitor.
Existing customers are high-probability prospects for your next related product or service. Trust has already been established. When customers are satisfied with their purchases, they’re more likely to buy again and with much less scrutiny than the first time around.
To capitalize on the true value of your customer list, you need to be aware of how often they are likely to have their carpets cleaned and the average job value.
Let’s suppose that an average job ticket is £200. If that’s all “customer A†ever spends with you, the actual value of “customer Aâ€, in terms of revenue, is just that...£200.
Now let’s say that this customer uses your company every year. Over five years, that customer is now worth £1000… or five times as much as the single-use customer!
Taking this one step further…since customer A is very satisfied with her purchase, she tells 3 of her friends about you. As a result these 3 friends also become 5-year customers. Now our original £200 customer is actually worth £4000… over the same five-year period! If those 3 newly acquired customers also referred others, the cash- generation picture gets even brighter. And it all started with a single £200 job ticket.
This is how a CD club can promise “5 CD’s for just £1â€. They don’t make any money on the first transaction. In fact, they often lose money on the front end. But they also know that the value of a customer who purchases repeatedly is well worth the comparatively small up-front costs.
These companies are banking on building long-term relationships with customers. That’s the key! Successful marketing is about building positive, long-term relationships with people. Never forget that simple fact and it will serve you well in your business.
Repeat business is where the true fortune lies. That’s why honesty and integrity are so important to the business that wants to grow and flourish. Real profit is generated from subsequent sales beyond the initial purchase.
The first sale often absorbs most of the costs associated with customer acquisition. Therefore, each subsequent sale has a higher percentage of built-in profit, than the one before. It doesn’t take long before it’s all profit, less of course any overhead.
Seeing the potential value of cared-for customers can help you determine how much you’re willing to spend to acquire each new customer. Newer businesses who don’t yet have a sizable customer list, may need to spend more initially in order to establish a customer base of some kind.
Once you have customers, it’s always in your best interest to continually serve… communicate with… make offers to…and generally delight those who have already bought from you.
Keep in mind that satisfied customers usually welcome frequent contact from businesses that have delivered superior overall satisfaction in the recent past. Often, your frequent communications simply renew good feelings - something everyone likes to experience.
Following are a few ideas for maintaining contact with your customers:
·        Put in place a system of regular contact where you can mention additional products and services that might be of interest to your customers
·        Consider using tools of communication like postcards, newsletters, thank-you cards and sales letters
·        Keep the lines of communication open so customers can easily have their problems solved – regular contact makes you more seem more accessible to customers
·        Do whatever it takes to make your customers happy
·        Send out regular reminder cards with an offer
·        Provide helpful tips or pass along related information customers may find useful
In the last 12 months I’ve used over 45 strategies to get new and repeat clients to use my company again for their cleaning. I like Dan Kennedy’s story about one of his students who was asked “What ONE way would he recommend to get 100 new clients?â€Â His reply “I don’t know ONE way to get 100 new clients but I do know 100 ways to get one new client and I use them allâ€
Do whatever is necessary to stay in your customer’s thoughts. The ultimate goal is to be “top of mindâ€â€¦ that is to be the first (and perhaps only) source your customer thinks of, whenever she needs what you provide. This gives you a tremendous competitive edge over others and adds considerably to the true value of your business.
You’ve already invested capital and energy to win over customers the first time. Once you have a customer, it’s up to you to keep them.